How to configure a joystick under linux in BGE?
Here's the thing, I found the joystick input works in blender 2.72b and 2.71 in ubuntu 16.04 but not 2.76b or the latest 2.78.  I found out this has also been reported in windows: https://developer.blender.org/D1484 .  This should be reported as occurring in linux as well as windows, idk how to report it, can anyone report this additional bug info?  if not I'll try to.  This is more of a workaround than an answer but until the bug is fixed perhaps this can be the answer.